Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg

Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg (21 August 1848, Bielska Struga – 17 November 1911) was a German officer who became noted as an anti-Semitic politician and publisher.

The foundation of the Christian Social Party by Adolf Stoecker in 1878 helped to galvanise anti-Semitic activity in Germany and brought Liebermann von Sonnenberg, then an officer in the German Imperial Army, to politics.

[2] Joining Bernhard Förster, the brother-in-law of Friedrich Nietzsche, he set up the Deutscher Volksverein (German People's League) in 1881 to support the anti-Semitic agenda.

The group struggled for support as it focused on a single issue that spawned a number of movements at the time and it declined further when Förster left for Paraguay in 1886 to set up his ill-fated Nueva Germania project.

[5] The two leaders however often found themselves in disagreement as Liebermann von Sonnenberg was basically a conservative whilst Böckel held a more radical world-view beyond his anti-Semitism, including a desire for land reform.